Hi –
The mechanical connection point for the power company’s lines to my home is not good. The service is 150 amp and the siding is wood but will be FC (half is done).
What is currently being used as a point of attachment is actually the metal strap that formerly braced the “house knobs” before the siding was replaced by a previous owner. I visited my local electrical supply house and they offered up a porcelain insulated “house knob” which, IIRC, had a 3/8″ lag bolt thread about 2″ in length. This does not seem to be adequate for supporting the 100 feet of utility line that exists from the street pole to the house. Can anybody offer up some links or suggestions as to where I can find a more substantial attachment device for the power lines? Local utility is zero help. For sure this is not a job I will be tackling but replacing the siding with FC is and the current attachment point and method is almost impossible to work around.
Much Thanks,
Eric S.
Silver Spring, MD
Replies
I've had the same issue more than once. Hire an electrician to come out and temporarily relocate the drop a few feet away. While he goes to lunch, work furiously to install a few more pieces of siding and then get out of the way while he comes back and reconnects to your new siding. Make sure to explain carefully over the phone what you need done so that he brings a handful of the proper hardware.
An electrican would be the person to call if the utility company won't send a tech. I'm guessing that you worded your request of the utility as a part request and not to have a tech. do the work. It's no wonder they are hesitant to tell you what part # they use on the service to your house! It's one thing to get zapped by 110 and quite another to have 220 upstream of the breakers get a hold of you.
In our area, an electrician would say you simply need to pay for the utility service tech to fix it since the situation goes from bad to worse if upon switching the support cable from one insulator to another there is a problem with the cable and suddenly the power line is simply dangling with the support cable dangling even closer to the ground. What then? A service tech will climb the pole and temp. turn off the power while switching insulators.
Firstly, appreciate both responses - I will try again with the utility and another electrician tomorrow.
I would love to post a picture of the situation but BT is not liking me today. Its not like this is my first time posting a pic - well, first time in a while.
I did call the utility company to send a tech out for the purposes of estimating $ to run feeder lines underground. Tech responded that it would cost 3K to 5K to dig a 100' trench and, after another 5 minutes of conversation, I felt pretty confident I knew more than he. I also pointed out the POS connection at the house and he had no comment.
I also had an electrician come out and asked about building a temp pole. He says "We don't build poles". Well, I knew that but I figured he would have a "working agreement" with a carpenter who would. After fumbling and mumbling a bit, he came up with the name of a carpenter who might build the pole but he wanted no responsibility for the construction. In a way I can undrstand that but in some ways I can't.
Eric S.
You'll have a much better feeling when actually talking with a pole climber instead of the guy on the phone. It might turn out that there is a simple way to temperarily attach your existing service in an area that allows the siding to be completed. Then they can come back out and reattach the service support cable in the orginal location.
In a way I can undrstand that but in some ways I can't.
Isn't that the truth! This weekend we stopped to refill a propane tank and were told that because it's the 4th weekend they won't fill tanks because they would be too busy with long lines of people to refill tanks. In a way it made sense, but in a new-math kind of way.
Best of luck with the project. :-)
had an electrician come out and asked about building a temp pole. He says "We don't build poles".
That would be the first electrician who ever admitted to not being able to work in an unskilled sort of material like wood . . . <g>
And, technically, that statement is true for virtually every electircal contrator here in the county--that's because all the temp poles are already made up and out in the yard against the fence by service size and/or project type.
You might check with electrical contractors to ask what they charge to put in u/g service. You will have to sound like you are not wasting their time to get the best answers (sometimes). So rather than "can'ya ballpark me what u/g service install costs per foot", and instead frame it as "I have a project where an overhead service is being replaced with underground (insert nice, measured distance, here) service; would you be interested in biddign that kind of work?"
Framing the questions right can be half the battle. Could be EC 1 isn't even working on your side of town, but EC 2 is trenching in something just down the street. Not sounding like a lookie-lou, but as a business oppertunity can help. Sometimes.Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
What is the connections from the drop to the meter? Any idea of the age. If it uses exposed SE cable, what it the condition of the cable.
Friend of mine had here service upgraded to 200 amp. The panel had been earlier replaced with a 100 amp. But the SE cable appeared to the orignal 60 amp cable. When the electrican started moving it out of the way for the new conduit it started arcing.
Around here the most common method is ridgit conduit through the roof and the drop is anchored to the conduit.
Weatherhead to meter is exposed 150A aluminum SE installed in April 98 and is in good shape from what I can tell. Feeder lines from pole to weatherhead are definitely smaller so they may be copper?
Tomorrow will prove interesting.
Eric S.
Pictures which tell a thousand words are here:
http://users.rcn.com/erics/House/
Edited 7/4/2006 3:02 pm ET by EricS
Here is how solve the problem when the wire insulation is in good shape...
If you feel uncomfortable...call an electrician.
Go to an electrical supply outfit and get a new wedge clamp (maybe two if your current one is mangled) and 2 porcelain insulators.
Working from a fiberglass ladder as a precaution...
Screw in your first insulator about a foot above the current location. Attach a new wedge clamp behind the existing one, hook a ratchet strap through the new wedge clamp to the temporary insulator you just installed. Take the tension off the old wedge clamp and remove it.
Finish your siding up to your temporary insulator.
Install your new insulator at its permanent location, another wedge clamp, and attach another ratchet strap from the First wedge clamp you installed to your new insulator. Rathet it until you can connect the new wedge clamp to the new insulator. Remove all temporary attachments and you are done.
Yes, I was going to break out the come-a-long and hook to the existing cable but then I thought about the feeder line laying on the grass and me falling from the ladder and said "nope, not me, let somebody do this who has done this before".
Only 6 & 8 FG step ldrs here and a couple of aluminum extensions - that won't cut it. Me thinks I'll call in an electrician and probably the utility also to get them to cut power for an hour or so. I realize this could probably be done "hot" but I would rather shell out the $ for cold lines.
The "problem" I have, other than the basic one of moving wire attachments, is with these ceramic insulators with the 3/8" x 2" lag screw threads sticking out the base. These insulators are about the size of a softball flattened on the base. What I would love to find is some electrician who says "Oh yea, we use these all the time, I've installed dozens - haven't had one pullout yet in 10 years."
Do you think I would sign on the dotted line right then and there? Yep
First I don't do remodeling type stuff, but rather new construction. That said, in my area, anything from the meter to the utility company is the property of and the responsibility of the utility company. This is not to say that they will work for free, but rather that even a licensed electrician is not allowed to work on it. Here, the utility company needs to do the type of work your talking about.
Certainly all new construction here - Washington DC metro area - has utilities running underground through conduit.
For those of us in older homes (pre-WWII era) in this area, electricians go from the meter to the weatherhead and leave 36" +/- of conductors for the utility company to hook into. What's even crazier is that if you have UG feeders, the power company goes shy of the meter and the electrician goes from the meter box (which he installed) to where the power company stopped. I'd love to know the rational behind that one - and there might very well be a reasonable explanation to which I am not privy.
Without a doubt, my problem lies in sort of a grey area (at least IMO) and it gets really grey when you have people "helping you" who are less knowledgable than yourself and/or anybody else who subscribes to this forum.
Eric S.
Here, for underground, the power company goes up to and inside the meter base. Not sure about about overhead. You are right - new construction is all underground, although we do not get conduit unless the feeder is to go under pavement or in a few other circumstances.
Sounds like your situation is different, and you might even need the power company and an electrician. Or, maybe you can get the power company to come out and disconnect, do your DIY thing, and then get them to come back and reconnect...
Here the power company is not very customer oriented... I have some stories...
How close is your weatherhead to the roof line? If you can cut through your eave and place a full stick of conduit through, you can have a head height of 24-32 inches MOL, and unistrut the stick to the house below at two points. There are simple rules you can review in a "code check" or the NEC, but if you dont go too tall, you don't need mast stays. Also, you can power up teh drop, and move your unistrut up and down when you side, just keep one in place and move the otherto side behind it.
Yoc can, as the HO, get a permit, put the mast and feeder in to code, have it stickered by your inspector, and your util will connect the drop.
-duke
"A wrongdoer is often a man who has left something undone, not always one who has done something."--Marcus Aurelius
"While You Are At It..." if you have to mess with it, consider going underground. That is what I did when I resided, and I love not having that wire strung accross the yard.
The electrician waited til he was trenching several jobs at once and gave me a deal.
That's exactly what I wanted to do but the power company here apparently has to dig the trench themselves and even though the pole is 80 feet away and I'm on flat land in an old subdivision, they wanted 3K to 5K for the trenchwork.
What did it cost you, what was the length, & what did that price include?
Much Thanks,
Eric S.
Maryland
Just rent a ditch witch and cut yourself a 100' trench to the pole. Lay in 2 1/2" schedule 40 for the main run with schdl 80 elbows and riser up the pole 4' and to your meter base. Pull in a string line, leave the trench uncovered at both ends and one spot in the middle.
Call your poco and elecrtrician to meet with you at the same time.
You did the grunt work, poco pulls in new wire, and electrician makes any conversions needed for overhead to underground service. With proper scheduling the job can be done in one day. Without knowing current cost of SE/UG cable a SWAG would be right $2k or less.
Dave
Much Thanks to you and all the other responders.
I am in the process now of electronically canvassing my neighborhood so I will have some "ammunition" when I ask my local utility (PEPCO) whether or not I can dig the trench. Other electric utilities in this area seem to allow the customer to dig the trench (according to utility guidelines) but PEPCO may very well be the lone holdout.
Eric S.
I work for a poco. We give out guidelines for service entrance requirements to home owners, builders and electrician. We are committed to customer service and public safety, so we want everyone singing the same hymn. Everything for ovrhd or udrgrd service is fully illustrated and described in our literature. If it meets our standard and passes our inspections, we don't care who puts it in. Then if the EI puts his green sticker on the meter base, meaning you meet code on your side, we pull in the SE wire and hook you up.
If your bill is paid, we'll even turn you on :)
Dave
DaveRicheson ---I have always found the power companies helpful ...
We try to be. Even to the 3 to 5% of customers that we have to cut off for non- payment. To them we are the scourge of the earth because we don't give away our service.
Dave